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Photo: Patricia Hills
Black & white
Image courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art
⊠31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men
When Johnson returned to the United States, he not only painted genre paintings but he also continued to paint portraits, which gave him a steady income. After 1880 Johnson turned to portraiture almost exclusively. During the 1880s and 1890s he painted businessmen, lawyers, university presidents, and three U.S. presidents from life. At times he also painted their wives and children.
He was also commissioned to paint posthumous portraits, often from photographs. These portraits by and large do not have the sparkle and active brushwork of those done from life. It seems that the demand for portraits of business and civic leaders (and members of exclusive men’s clubs) was so high that portrait painters would often make copies of each other’s paintings to satisfy the market for such images. In many instances, it has been difficult to render opinions for such paintings. —PH
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Hills no. 31.1.39
Grover Cleveland
c.1891
Oil on cardboard
10 1/2 x 8 3/4 in. (26.7 x 22.2 cm)
Initialed lower left: E. J.
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Labels
Verso label, now in the archives of The Metropolitan Museum of Art: This original Study by Eastman Johnson of Pres. Cleveland, / was purchased, with a collection of oil sketches and portraits / & charcoal studies, by me, in 1915, from Mrs. Eastman Johnson. / This study was made as a basis of his well known large portrait / of President Cleveland. / Albert Rosenthal / N.Y. 12 /19 - 1936
References
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine (September 1906), p. 273
.
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York:
Kennedy Galleries,
1920.
Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 11, addendum "Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as
Grover Cleveland]
.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-03-10; 2016-11-03
Examination notes: 1971-03-10: A spontaneous sketch.
2016-11-03: LL. “E. J.” Oil sketch. Coarse surface. Waste basket in foreground; sketchy papers on desk.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Cleveland, Stephen Grover
Biography: Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837–1908). Twenty-second president of the United States, 1885–1889, and twenty-fourth president of the United States, 1893–1897.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
Cleveland, Stephen Grover
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Keywords
- Portrait pose:
- Occupations:
Record last updated January 13, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Grover Cleveland, c.1891 (Hills no. 31.1.39)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=522 (accessed on April 26, 2024).